​Pearl Harbor is often compared to the Darwin attack but the similarities are very few.

​Although both were surprise initial raids on an enemy of the Japanese Empire, the destruction caused in each raid was disproportionate in the extreme. ​Some people say Darwin was “bigger” than the Pearl Harbor strike. The chairwoman of the Northern Territory's Centenary of Federation committee in 2001, Carole Miller, said: “'It was bigger than Pearl Harbour...and it's time the nation knew about this."[1]Many say: “More bombs fell on Darwin”, a phrase now common in much of the publicity surrounding the commemoration of the first raids.[2] True enough but it is just used to be sensationalist if used without the correlation that the tonnage of bombs which fell on Pearl Harbor was greater: the Japanese were using smaller bombs in the Darwin raid. It’s a bit like saying the Darwin assaults were more significant than the Nagasaki raid because that attack on Japan only used one bomb.

The following tables shows the statistics of the two raids.

Explosive Ordnance tonnage – Pearl Harbor v Port Darwin

Pearl Harbor - First Wave

Aircraft

Number launched

Aborts

Total attacking

Ordnance load

Ordnance released

Tonnage (kgs)

B5N2 Kates

50 *

1

49

One x 800kg bomb

49 x 800kg bombs

39,200kg

D3A1 Vals

54

3

51

One x 250kg bomb

51 x 250kg bombs

12,750kg

A6M2 Zeroes

45

2

43

Nil

Nil

Nil

Totals

149

4

100

100 bombs

100 bombs

51,950kg

* - A further 40 Kates were each armed with one 800kg Mk 91 Aerial torpedo, totaling 32,000kg

Pearl Harbor - Second Wave

Aircraft

Number launched

Aborts

Total attacking

Ordnance load

Ordnance released

Tonnage (kgs)

B5N2 Kates

27

Nil

27

Two x 250kg bombs

54 x 250kg bombs

13,500kg

B5N2 Kates

27

Nil

27

One x 250kg bombssix x
60kg bombs

54 x 250kg bombs162 x 60kg bombs

6,750kg

9,720kg

D3A1 Vals

81

3

78

One x 250kg bomb

78 x 250kg bombs

19,500kg

A6M2 Zekes

36

1

35

Nil

Nil

Nil

Totals

171

4

167

321 bombs

49,470kg

Pearl Harbor Total

Weapons

Number launched

Tonnage (kgs)

Bombs

421

101,420

Torpedoes

40 x 800kg

32,000

Total

461

133,420

Port Darwin - Carrier strike

Aircraft

Number launched

Aborts

Total attacking

Ordnance load

Ordnance released

Tonnage (kgs)

B5N2 Kates

81

Nil

81

One x 800kg bomb

81 x 800kg bombs

64,800kg

D3A1 Vals

71

Nil

71 - one lost after release, MN3304

One x 250kg bomb

69 (2 x hang-ups -
Vals returned with bombs)

17,250kg

A6M2 Zekes

36

Nil

36

Nil

Nil

Nil

Totals

188

Nil

188

152 bombs

150 bombs

82,050kg

Port Darwin - Land-based trike

Aircraft

Number launched

Aborts

Total attacking

Ordnance load

Ordnance released

Tonnage (kgs)

G4M1 Bettys

27

Nil

27

212 x 60kg and one x 250kg

212 x 60kg and one x 250kg

12,970kg

G3M2 Nells

27

Nil

27

318 x 60kg

318 x 60kg

19,080kg

Totals

54

Nil

54

531 bombs

531 bombs

32,050kg

Port Darwin Total

Weapons

Number launched

Tonnage (kgs)

Bombs

681

114,100

Total

681

114,100

Steve Bullard’s table: Wartime magazine No. 59 Winter 2012

Raid

Number of Bombers

Number of Bombs

Totat weight (kgs)

Pearl Harbor

273

457

133,560

Darwin

205

681

114,100

The comparison is also a rather disingenuous one. A torpedo strike from a Japanese bomber would do far more damage than a bomb from the same aircraft: as air group leader Fuchida discussed in conferences before the attack: “…the torpedoes below the surface would do more effective damage than bombings from the air.”[4] Torpedoes were not used at Darwin but they inflicted massive damage at the American base. To just compare the weapons by their weight is to miss this point.Some say that more civilians were killed in the Australian raids.[5] Untrue. There were 2,388 lives lost in the Pearl Harbor raids compared to 235 killed in Darwin. It’s generally held 68 civilians were killed at Pearl; 25 were killed in Darwin.What about the ships sunk?​It has been claimed more ships were sunk at Pearl than in Darwin.[6] Eleven ships were sunk in Darwin: nine inside the harbour. The largest warship was a destroyer, the USS Peary, with 88 of her crew killed. At Pearl all eight battleships of the US Pacific Fleet, the most important capital ship at the time, were sunk or badly damaged. The size difference between a destroyer and a battleship is immense. The comparison is similar to that of a car set beside a three-trailer truck. The firepower is commensurately similar.Three cruisers – again, big, important ships – five destroyers, and seven other ships were also sunk or grounded. Most ships were raised and repaired, although for many wrecks this took years.The strike at Pearl was a massive loss for American aircraft too, and that raid was far more destructive than Darwin’s. For example, 350 aircraft were destroyed or damaged whereas in the Australian assault 30 were lost.None of this is to say that the 19 February 1942 strikes were insignificant. They were. The attacks were the first on the Australian landmass, and signaled a new and sometimes desperate stage of the war, which if Australians had not stood alongside Americans and prevailed in New Guinea, may well have seen invasion. The writer Douglas Lockwood called his 1960s book, the first published about the raids, Australia’s Pearl Harbour. It’s a good and deserved title. But the important differences should be emphasized, not minimized, to do historical justice to both of the attacks on Pearl Harbor and Darwin.

​SourcesIngman, Peter. Citing, “NavSource Naval History”, http://www.navsource.org/Naval/ijnaf.htmSmith, Carl. Pearl Harbor 1941 The day of infamy. Osprey. 2001.Stille, Mark. Tora, Tora, Tora!: Pearl Harbor 1941. Osprey. 2011.Bullard, Steve. “Were more bombs dropped on Darwin than on Pearl Harbor?” Australian War Memorial. Wartime magazine No. 59 Winter 2012.Kawano, Capt. Teruaki. The Japanese Navy’s air raid against Australia during the World War 2. Extracts of the Japanese Kodochosho. 1997.